Todd is God

In the words of the great Billy Idol, it was hot in the city, hot in the city tonight for this recording. Studio fans set to hurricain. Kacey Musgaves - Pagaent Material Faith No MOre - Sol Invictus Giorgio Moroder - Deja Vu Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly Florence & The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Summer Camp - Bad Love Check out this episode!

John Lydon: "Oh, I really love Todd Rundgren. His whole attitude musically is thrilling. He does what he wants to do, therefore he gains maximum interest no matter what he gets up to, for me. I would say he was more punk than a lot of these wannabes because of the variances and the challenges he gives himself musically, which is massively entertaining. That's inspiring stuff to me. People that don't wear the uniform of genres will always thrill me." [Goldmine, July 2015]

Paste magazine talks to Todd and Dam about the tour.

The LA Record has a really enjoyable interview with Todd conducted by  Jonathan Rado   of  Foxygen Some good insight into the making of  Something / Anything   and comments about   Skrillex (and the longevity of atmospheric music) I agree with too.

We've come over all electronica this month. Whether or not that is a good thing or not, you'll need to listen and find out. Also do we REALLY need a new Blur album?  Blur – The Magic Whip MG – MG Rundgren /Nikolaisen/ Lindstrøm - Runddans Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer Hot Chip - Why Make Sense? Check out this episode!

The Guardian review of the new ( v good) Paul Weller Album makes a mention of Todd. " Weller is a magpie in terms of where he finds inspiration. Long Time chugs along menacingly like the Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog, while Going My Way's simple refrain veers into a Todd Rundgren -meets-the Beach Boys stomp."

Great Interview in Rolling Stone with Hans-Peter, Emil and Todd   Runddans means "rondel" in Danish, "circular object," and the title of one track is "Rundt Rundt Rundt" – around, around, around. Rundgren: "That's the central theme. The chords keep repeating, and it's hard to tell where the beginning of the sequence is. It's like an aural illusion where the sound sounds like its continually ascending when it's really repeating a cycle of harmonics. It's like you're tuning in a cosmic radio that keeps playing the same song over and over again – but it comes out different every time. It's like Groundhog Day. We refer to it as "the beginning and end of all music."  Meanwhile, Angus Findlayson at Resident Advisor is not totally convinced: "Runddans is an intriguing and sometimes fun experiment, but it's not quite a meeting of great musical minds. A pessimist might say that they've missed one an...

Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Yesterday's Guardian called Runddans "A deliriously camp treat."

Onion/AV Club has a really nice interview with Todd about Runddans and other things. On Runddans: "It’s totally sideways. Actually we worked on this project over the past almost three years, I guess. It started out as something relatively small and concise and then it just kept spreading like a disease. I guess we finally got to the point where we couldn’t think of anything else to do with it anymore and decided to wrap it up and release it. So it is something that is different by today’s terms for the most part because it isn’t songs."

Pop Matters reviews Runddans and doesn't really get it: "Rundgren’s presence is mostly limited to some lyric-less chiming, and even those tracks—“Put Your Arms Around Me” and “Altar of Kauaian Six String”—the songs where his participation is most apparent, yield results that are, in an actual song sense, almost negligible. Fans of psychedelic soirees ala early Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd will likely find satisfaction. As for everyone else, well, suffice it to say, drugs of another sort may indeed be needed." P.S. I gave it a listen this morning and I think it is one which will be a marmite album.

The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday reviewed the new album from Action Bronson – "Mr. Wonderful" saying " Bronson's back-and-forth between grainy, soulful singing and rapping comes across like a modern-day Todd Rundgren circa "I Saw the Light.""

XLR8R has a good interview with Hans-Peter Lindstrøm on what it was like working with Todd and Emil on the Runddans album and more detail son how it came about and who did what. "[I]t’s not the kind of album that you put on and do some work while it’s playing; you really have to concentrate, I think. And you’ll get different things out of it every time you listen—there are a lot of musical references to Todd’s past, for instance, and all kinds of things that are important to us, and that we hope listeners will enjoy as well. So, basically, it’s serious listening music."

The Guardian says of the collaboration "The vibe is more often trippy and transcendental than indulgent, whereas even the most far-out moments fail to disguise Rundgren’s pop nous, most evident in the synth rushes of Put Your Arms Around Me and the electrifying soloing that follows it."

PING! Yes, a new podcast and some Todd to talk about. But there is more with 3rd album's galore. The Prodigy - The Day is My Enemy Todd Rundgren - Global Halestorm - Into the Wild Laura Marling - Short Movie Marina & The Diamonds - Froot Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp Check out this episode!

30 Years of Todd on Letterman Meanwhile John Mellencamp asks why Todd isn't in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame

  Advance stream of Todd Rundgren’s quite straight version of “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” from the forthcoming multi-artist Cleopatra album  Keep Calm and Salute the Beatles.

Q Magazine in a 2 star review says whilst Global is 'more cheery than 2013's State' it is 'less appealing'. Mojo Magazine too are not feeling the love, stating it lacks " the quality of songwriting in his best best work from the '70s" The Evening Telegraph's Kevin Bryan says: " It's not the most subtle offering that Rundgren has ever unleashed on his discerning devotees but as an exercise in rather superior synth-based dance music it fulfils its function more than adequately, with Evrybody, Blind and Terra Firma emerging as the best of the bunch." Meanwhile, Record Collector's Joseph Adair says: " Global   is as pastiche-y as the album’s cartoon-styled portrait sleeve, but no less enjoyable for that"   in its 3 star review.

There is an interview with Todd in the ClevelandPlain Dealer where he once again speaks up against artist that are obsessed with maintaining the album/CD cash cow    “The performing is what you’re there for,” he said. “Musicians have to be reminded that 120 years ago, there was no such thing as a record industry. Since then, artists have come to rely on album sales for the bulk of their income. But with today’s technology, where anyone can record and distribute a record via programs such as Pro Tools or Garage Band and sites such as Soundcloud and Reverbnation, it’s almost as if we’re going back to the good old days.The changes only highlight the fact that the live performance is the most essential part of a musician’s life, and the rest is all merchandise,” he said.

Goldmine magazine spoke to Todd and have him on the cover of the latest issue (April) . Things he talks about include: The new album: With "Global," there's a song called "Flesh and Blood," and that's about the phenomenon if you create the right sort atmosphere and the right music and the right place you can turn tens of thousands of people into a single organism. And that's kind of what you need to accomplish the stuff that we need to accomplish. We need to be able to unify people in that way, and music is one of those things that in some way short circuits people's brains (laughs) and makes them stop thinking about other things and focus on the thing that you're dealing with right now.  The Beatles ( and Deface the Music): The reason why we did that record wasn't really because we had some long standing desire to make a Beatles-style record; we were kind of contrarians. The Knack was really hot at the time with "My Sharona....

Asbury Park Press (New Jersey) has an interview with Blues Magoos' Peppy Castro, and Todd gets a mention. Castro discussed the prospect of revisiting his band's signature song. "When we were really young, I remember thinking to myself I loved a guy like Todd Rundgren who always re-invented himself and always went on to new things," he recalled. "And I said, 'Oh God, please don't let me have to keep playing "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet" for the next 40 years and beat it to death and become an imitation of myself. Well, due to circumstances beyond my control and the band being a one-hit wonder, that was never the case."  Personally the thing that always struck me about the song was how blatant a rip off Deep Purple's Black Night was